A Flash Before the Eyes

by cliosmuse

Chapter 13

The first person he went to was the last person he wanted to admit he needed. He found him in memorial hallway, hands buried in his pockets, staring at her photograph. "Hey, Sam."

The man jerked slightly at his voice. "Oh. Hey." He looked back at Kara's picture. "She looks so happy here. I bet she'd just won a big hand of triad." A beat, and he gestured at the photo. "I don't know why I haven't taken it down yet. I guess I wasn't sure if it was my job anymore. I didn't put it up, after all. I'd never even seen this one before you put it here." He paused; threw his eyes toward Lee. "You took this, didn't you? It's you she's smiling at."

Lee cleared his throat; their conversation would always be awkward, especially where she was concerned. "I thought you were going to the surface today. You know, to check things out. Explore those memories of yours."

Sam shrugged. "All passage has been suspended. I don't know why. I spent a hour this morning trying to figure it out, but no one will say anything."

Lee rocked back on his feet; his eyes were focused on Sam's shoes. "No one's been allowed to leave since she was arrested this morning."

At that, Sam's eyes shot to meet his own: he was suddenly intensely present. "No. No." He paused. "It's serious, isn't it? Tell me what happened."

Lee sighed. "She has been accused –" He emphasized the word. "– of treason." He laughed bitterly. "And yes, the charges are very serious." A pause. "There won't be a trial."

Sam shook his head; looked back at the wall and reached out absently to touch Starbuck's frozen image. "But the punishment for treason is –"

"Yes."

"So they're going to –"

"That's why I'm here. You and me, Sam. We're going to keep that from happening. It's what we were meant to do."

She didn't have to look up to know who it was. "Hi, Sammy."

He walked toward the bars and looked down at her; she was seated on the edge of her bunk, elbows on her knees. Her long hair fell across her cheek as she stared intently at the floor, brows furrowed. It was an expression he'd seen many times, but only since she'd returned. Only on the Demetrius. "Hi yourself."

She cocked her head toward him. "Did Lee tell you?"

He shook his head in frustration, pushing a hand through his hair. "Yeah, he told me. And he told me about this crazy plan of yours, too. I may be reckless sometimes, but – gods, this plan of yours is going to get you both killed."

Her eyes cut toward his: angry, excited, intense. Another look he'd seen time and again on the Demetrius. "Better than dying here, right?"

He was silent a moment. Thought carefully about how to broach the next topic. "Kara, there was someone else on that planet, wasn't there?"

Her eyes narrowed, and she leaned back. Dispassionately: "Now, why would you say something like that, Sam?"

He shook his head. "Lee told me that you're not one of us. But there's something about you. Every time I'm near you I remember a little bit more. Like now. I look at you, and suddenly I'm filled with this vivid memory of walking through New York and listening to Tyrol explaining to us what just happened. I remember that he was a physicist." He stared at her. "But I try and I try and I try: and I still can't remember who the Fifth is."

"That's because I wasn't there when you met."

He nodded as if she'd confirmed his deepest suspicion. "So you know. I knew you did. And if you could just tell them –"

She stood suddenly, walked quickly toward him so that she was face to face with him through the bars. "No, Sammy."

He frowned; shook his head, ran his hand through his hair once again: a nervous gesture. His eyes brimmed slightly with tears he fought. "Kara, I can't just let you die, not over a lie. Whoever it is – they're why you're here. Why won't you just say something?"

In the next cell, Leoben, lying on his own cot, staring at the ceiling, laughed slightly. "Because she's too reverent to defy prophesy. She believes too deeply, even to her own peril."

Sam glared at the voice (its owner didn't see, continued to stare at the vacant ceiling). "Kara, surely you don't think –"

She lowered her head, spoke with quiet conviction. "Soon there will be Four, glorious in awakening. Struggling with the knowledge of their true selves. The pain of revelation bringing new clarity. And in the midst of confusion he will find her, enemies brought together by impossible longing –"

(Beneath her voice, the Cylon again: "That's me, in case you didn't realize." And Sam: "Just shut the frak up already.")

"– enemies now joined as one. The way forward, at once unthinkable, yet inevitable."

"But Kara –"

"And the Fifth, still in shadow, will claw toward the light, hungering for redemption –"

"Redemption?"

"– that will only come in the howl of terrible suffering."

His mouth hung open; his eyes were wide. "Kara, where did you hear that?"

At last she looked up. "I've been hearing it in my dreams, Sam. I wake up every night with this pounding in my brain. And what it means is that it's not my destiny to reveal the Fifth."

Silence for a moment. Then his hands, tight fists, moved to his hips, and he clenched his jaw in frustration. "So, just like that. That's your decision. You'd rather die than go against some prophetic nonsense."

When he looked at her again, her face was a plea. A whisper, a small smile, radiating her hope: "'And then they will join in the promised land, gathered on the wings of an angel. Not an end, but a beginning.' I'm not going to die, Sam. We're going to go there, together." Her eyes asked for trust. "Will you do what Lee asks you?"

He looked around for a moment, anywhere but at her. "Yes, okay? Of course I'll do it. I was always going to." And then he turned to leave.

"Sam?" He paused. Turned his head toward her, but slightly, so that she caught his profile. "Thank you."

He shrugged, the smallest hint of a smile on his face. "I always said my girl was too lucky to check out."

Lee Adama stood outside the hatch that led to Chief (not Chief, Specialist now, he reminded himself) Galen Tyrol's quarters. When they'd arrived, Sam had put a hand on his arm. "Let me talk to him. I have it on pretty good authority that he's been a wreck since Cally died. He and I – we don't exactly like each other. But we do have something in common."

Lee had nodded; Sam's points were good ones. And now he stood outside Tyrol's quarters trying to decipher the quiet voices over the baby's cries.

At last, the hatch opened, and Sam beckoned to him.

He walked in. Tyrol was sitting on his bunk in near-darkness, the baby on his lap. His eyes were ringed with black circles. Sam stood to one side. "I've explained to him. I've asked him if he'll come with us."

Lee looked back and forth between the two. "And?"

"I can't." Tyrol looked down. "Nicky needs me here. And I just –." He sighed. "I think anyone would tell you I'm not – together enough for this right now."

Apollo shook his head in frustration. "Great. Just great."

"That doesn't mean I won't help you." He caught Lee's eye. "If I could have saved Cally…. Do you understand?" He looked back toward Nicky. "You were planning on gathering the four of us for this. Don't. Tigh and Tory can't help you."

"Why not?"

"Tigh wants to be human too much. 'Be the man you want to be.' He'll tell Adama as soon you tell him." A pause. "Tory – Tory's the opposite. Tory doesn't want to be human at all. You can't trust her."

Lee nodded slowly, taking it in. "But if not them, who –"

Tyrol sighed. "You'll figure it out. If you're meant to do this, you'll figure it out." He paused. "You'll need a Raptor and a pilot. I can get you the Raptor. I can still authorize shuttle departures. It's about all I can do. You find the pilot yourself. And one more thing." He glanced at Sam. "Anders says that Starbuck wanted me because she thought you needed a scientist. Well, I'm no good for that, either. Starbuck and Longshot here remember more about me than I do. But I do have an idea."

"You want me to what?" Gaius Baltar looked nervously around his commune, where Lee and Sam had cornered him. They had taken the opposite approach to Baltar: Lee stood directly before him, Anders to the side, leaning against the bulkhead, arms across his chest. Baltar shook his head, clutching at his side slightly (his wound still pained him). "Is this some kind of trap? A set-up? You want to catch me on tape involving myself in conspiracy, is that it?"

Lee shook his head. "No. No, of course not."

They had asked Baltar's followers to clear the room for this conversation, but evidence of their fervor surrounded them. As Lee and Baltar talked, Sam looked around the room. Radio equipment surrounded him, the detritus of Baltar's newfound media persona. Velvet curtains hid the alloy walls from view, making the interior of the room feel anything but an abandoned storage locker on a battlestar. His eye caught upon a gold frame, surrounded by candles, that contained Baltar's image; he stared at it, transfixed, as the conversation progressed.

"Are you certain of that, Mr. Adama? The president has made it very clear to me that she values neither the law nor my rights as a Colonial citizen."

Lee held his eyes. "But I do, and you know it."

Baltar cocked his head to the right, his expression that of a man listening to wise counsel. At one point, he nodded vaguely, as if conceding a point to himself in some contentious internal debate. "All right. For the sake of argument, let's say I trust you." A pause; an arched eyebrow. "I don't suppose she asked for me specifically, did she?"

Lee's eyes narrowed, but, as he made to take a step toward the scientist-turned-prophet, Sam stepped forward and effectively blocked him. "No." (He answered for Lee.) "She didn't. Galen Tyrol suggested that we ask you. He thought you might be willing to help us. But maybe he was wrong."

Baltar's eyes grew wide. "Galen Tyrol sent you. Did he, now?" (And then quietly, to himself: "All so fascinating, it is. I really should have seen it, all of it.") He brought his index finger to his lips. "Well, I do suppose, I do suppose it couldn't do any harm for me to take a little vacation from this lovely ship of yours." He pursed his lips and gave a single, short nod. "All right. I'll come on your little secret mission. When do we leave?"